I know I've been gone for a while, but I've been consumed with writing, and making fantastic progress. Today, however, I couldn't resist this quote from Psych. This is from the episode "Indiana Shawn and the Temple of the Kinda Crappy, Rusty Old Dagger," the funniest episode I believe I've ever seen on this show.

"I do not repeat myself so you must listen, and contrary to popular belief, there is such a thing as a dumb question. I'll assume many of you have completed the third grade. If at any time you're confused by something you hear, right, there's a book in the gift shop to help you - it's called the dictionary. Open it up once in a while. Now who's ready to have a great time? Try to keep your lower lip from dropping to your waist during the parts with mutliple syllables."--from the curator and/or tour guide

Okay, so it's totally demeaning, but think of the number of people you've encountered in your life that you've wanted to say the first sentence to? Sometimes we want to be rude, but then there's something called a conscience that stops us. When I want to be this rude, then I usually let my characters handle it; that way, I get away with it. Great job to the writers on this episode. Loved it!

I have no excuse for not posting other than to say most of the things I've heard around me are from characters insistent on being put into a novel, not onto the blog. I must pay these people attention while they're being kind to me. I will return soon!

"Listen...you’re grieving not only for the husband you lost but for the life you had envisioned. You’re grieving for the future and all the plans and dreams you had in your head. Now that’s all…gone. There’s a wonderful saying  -  'you have give up the life you planned to find the life that’s waiting for you.'  All our lives we grow by giving up things, by loss and moving on, big things, little ones. How we handle those losses really defines who we are….If you don’t acknowledge [grief] and feel it, it will never get out of your way. Unacknowledged feelings are like a drunken cousin at a family reunion; they never shut up so you can hear anyone else. And you have to be able to hear what’s next in your life, what path you might wanna travel down…you have to be able to see what’s right there, right there, right in front of your eyes."--Nora Walker from Brothers & Sisters

I love this show, and I love Nora. Sally Field is an excellent actress, and I always felt she was perfectly cast in this show. The sad news is that I just found out the show was cancelled. As Nora says, "all our lives we grow by giving up things, by loss and moving on, big things, little ones," and though it's just a TV show, my heart aches for its demise. For me, the show came to life, not only from the actors' abilities to capture their characters, but from the writing. I loved Nora's monologues, her moments of adoration and rage, her spastic nature of wanting to love her children unconditionally while allowing them room to breathe on their own. Her children drove her crazy, and vice versa, but the writers encapsulated what it means to be in a family that is not picture-perfect. All families are flawed, heavily layered.  There were many ups and downs on the show and moments when characters had to let people go before they were ready to say good-bye. I'll miss the Walker's. In their honor, I think I'll go have a glass of wine.

"There's a reason I said I'd be happy alone. It wasn't cus I thought I'd be happy alone. It was because I thought if I loved someone and then it fell apart, I might not make it. It's easier to be alone because what if you learn that you need love and then you don't have it, what if you like it and lean on it, what if you shape your life around it and then it falls apart. Can you ever survive that kind of pain? Losing love is like organ damage. It's like dying. The only difference is death ends. This. It could go on forever."--from Meredith Grey from Grey's Anatomy

Love + people = life (with a side of pain, from time to time). When it comes down to it, some people don't survive when love dies, others grow bitter, and some move on, significantly changed, but all those people have something in common - they can't live without it. We weren't meant to live our lives alone, but so many of us try. I imagine the act is like blowing in a balloon that never quite fills up enough to float on its own.

"When I think about the future, I wanna be the guy who deserves a girl like you."--Max to Naomi during the West Bev graduation on 90210

Okay, it's cheesy, and after several months of no posts, you'd think I'd choose something more, well, enlightening. But if you think about it, and you're a fan of this show, then you know how important those words are for that couple, and you probably had your awww moment, too. Of course they're a couple in love in high school, and given Naomi's track record with men, she may have a new love bunny within the near future, though now that she's dropped the baby bomb on Max, who knows where the writers will take her story.

See, that's the thing...the future can take people anywhere, and when we ponder it, we always imagine we'll be someplace greater than where we are, and when we wake up to the future, we think, what the heck happened? while saying to God, "Um, excuse me, sir, but I think you dropped me off in the wrong place."

The tricky thing is that we can't control the outcome; we can't see what's up ahead. All we can do is experience life as it happens, and as scary and exciting as that is, it's a huge enigma we don't seem meant to figure out.

So, I say, go ahead Max and try to be the man that deserves a girl like Naomi. She's shallow, inconsiderate, and sometimes downright worthy of a good slap in the face, but she's trying to exceed beyond the superficial bubble she lives in. If she wasn't, she'd never be dating a geek...in public. Now I bet she never saw that coming in her future!

"An old Cherokee chief was teaching his grandson about life. 'There's a great fight going on inside of all of us,' he told him, 'and it's a fight between two wolves. One is evil. He has anger, envy, guilt, sorrow and ego, and the other is good; He is joy, love, hope, truth and faith.' The grandson asked, 'which wolf will win?' and the chief replied, 'The one you feed.'"--from an episode of 90210

The great fight. Does it ever diminish? It seems to me we fight for things our entire lives. We fight for people, for dreams, for change and stability. For life. Lately, I've fought for success. I crave it, and not because my fictional characters depend on me to find them 'homes' but because I can't rest until they are at peace. This sense of obligation controls my life. And so there is an evil wolf in me because the anger, envy, sorrow and ego bash in my skull at times, but the good wolf keeps me going. It's about faith, I think, because if I didn't have it I wouldn't still be writing after all these years, and I wouldn't be so intrigued by information I hear on television, the radio or from a stranger's mouth. I wouldn't believe that the good wolf can prevail, and will, if I feed her well and often. No one out there has perfected this struggle. If they have, then they aren't human.

"What's complicated? I don't live in a cave; I get it. The rich girls steal, the pretty girls lie, the smart girls play dumb, and the dumb girls spend their days trying to be all of the above."--from a character from Pretty Little Liars

My, how this character stereotypes girls. I wonder, though, is there truth to this? What do you think?